'First' in the Bible

“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,And your counselors as at the beginning;Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness,The faithful city.”

This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab [when Moab’s pride and resistance to God were first known].

“Who has performed and done this,Calling forth [and guiding the destinies of] the generations [of the nations] from the beginning?‘I, the Lord—the first, and with the last [existing before history began, the ever-present, unchanging God]—I am He.’”

“I was first to say to Zion, ‘Listen carefully, here they are [the Jews who will be restored to their own land].’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will provide a messenger (Isaiah) to bring the good news [that Cyrus will be stirred up and put into action to save them].’

“Even from eternity I am He,And there is no one who can rescue from My hand;I act, and who can revoke or reverse it?”

“Your first father [Jacob] sinned,And your spokesmen [the priests and the prophets—your mediators] have transgressed against Me.

“For the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts says this,‘I am the First and I am the Last;And there is no God besides Me.

“Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called;I am He, I am the First, I am the Last.

For the Lord God says this, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there; and [many years later Sennacherib] the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

“The islands and coastlands will confidently wait for Me;And the ships of Tarshish will come first,To bring your sons from far away,Their silver and gold with them,For the name of the Lord your God,For the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you.